ECRHA Kicks Off Season in Rhode Island
Check out our recaps by division below and follow @NCRHA_C2C on Twitter and Instagram for updates all season long.
Division 1
Neumann 7, UMass 1
Farmingdale 12, Rhode Island 1
Farmingdale 4, Neumann 3
UMass 11, Rhode Island 2
Farmingdale 5, UMass 4 (OT)
Neumann 13, Rhode Island 1
Farmingdale 3–0–0
Neumann 2–1–0
UMass 1–1–1
Rhode Island 0–3–0
When you’re coming off of an NCRHA D1 National Championship, every team you face is going to throw their best at you; there are no easy games. The Farmingdale State Rams learned of this consequence the best schools face early on, having to play from behind to beat both Neumann and UMass in one-goal games.
Farmingdale 4, Neumann 3
The Knights look different this season without Shane Fox, but a changing cast over the past few seasons hasn’t stopped them from doing damage year after year. Their season started looking like it wouldn’t be an exception. Neumann jumped out to a 2–0 lead in the first period, with Andy Zubak and Sean Phelan scoring early for the Knights. On the next faceoff after Neumann’s second goal, the brothers Corso teamed up for a FSC goal, with Senior Luc scoring on a pass from his freshman brother Jake.
Farmingdale’s Tim Janke scored the lone goal in the 2nd period to tie the game up at 2–2.
After another Corso brothers goal to start the 3rd, Neumann’s Nick DeSalvo would tie the game with 6:04 left on the clock. Once again, Farmingdale answered on the ensuing faceoff. Freshman Max Halverson would score the eventual game-winner just 28 seconds later, about halfway through the final period, as the score would stay the same the rest of the way. Both teams had strong goaltending throughout the game, with Adam Goggio (NU) and Dustin Muccio-Schrimpe (FSC) playing well in net for their respective squads.
Farmingdale 5, UMass 4 (OT)
In the Sunday morning game, UMass jumped out to a 3–0 lead on the Rams in the first period, despite being outshot 13–5 in the period. FSC fought back the rest of the way, tying the score to start the 3rd before taking their first lead of the game on a goal from freshman Colin Tinschert with 3:56 remaining in the 3rd. The Minutemen answered almost immediately, with Shawn Lapp scoring a minute later to tie the game. Shortly after that, regulation ended. In OT, Chris Russolello would score the game winner off a pass from Jake Corso and FSC escaped with a 5–4 win. While UMass was able to keep the game close and take the Rams to overtime, FSC dominated much of the game, outshooting the Minutemen 42–17.
Get NCRHA Coast 2 Coast’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
It’s worth mentioning that the Rams were missing the DiMartino brothers, PJ and Freshman Joey, and on Sunday played without Luc Corso and Max Halverson, but needless to say, earning a point against the defending National Champions is noteworthy and an accomplishment for a strong UMass team on the first weekend of the season.
Rhode Island struggled as expected but look forward to building off their first event. After losing Head Coach Dan Leonard and 8 of their best, including the tandem of leading scorers Will Lalor and Steve Falkowski, and defensive stallward Gil Lederhandler, new Head Coach Trevor Butterfield has a lot of work ahead of him, but seems poised and ready for the challenge of what should be a rebuilding year for Rhody.
— —
Division 2
Hofstra 6, Endicott 4
Northeastern 3, Stony Brook 2
Northeastern 7, Boston 3
Northeastern 7, Hofstra 4
Endicott 5, Stony Brook 4
Hofstra 9, Boston 8
Stony Brook 5, Hofstra 4
Endicott 8, Boston 6
Northeastern. 3–0–0
Endicott. 2–1–0
Hofstra. 2–2–0
Stony Brook. 1–2–0
Boston. 0–3–0
In Division 2 action, opening weekend provided a brief glimpse into how competitive this division will be in the ECRHA this season. Of the eight games on the weekend, half of them were one-goal games, and all but two were two-goal games. Northeastern was the only team to escape Rhode Island without a blemish on their record.
Stony Brook had barnburners against Endicott (5–4 L) and the Seawolves’ one goal loss to Northeastern was the closest game the Huskies played all weekend.
At first glimpse, Boston’s 0–3–0 record doesn’t show how close their games were — a 2 goal loss to Endicott and 1 goal game vs. Hofstra are just another example of the parity in the ECRHA this year.
We’ll be jumping more into these matchups and other ECRHA D2 results from the first two weekends of play on this week’s C2C Podcast. Dates and times will be posted on twitter.com/ncrha_c2c, as well as our other social media accounts, so make sure to follow us.
